


Intersections

by lincyclopedia



Series: OMGCP Friendship Week [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Coming Out, Enemies to Friends, Gay William "Dex" Poindexter, Gen, Late Night Conversations, POV Third Person, POV Third Person Limited, Personal Growth, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26530261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lincyclopedia/pseuds/lincyclopedia
Summary: Obviously, Dex has some learning to do. Perhaps less obviously, so does Shitty. Somehow, they wind up learning from each other. Written for OMGCP Friendship Week. Today's prompt is "late night conversations."
Relationships: Shitty Knight & William "Dex" Poindexter
Series: OMGCP Friendship Week [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1924087
Comments: 9
Kudos: 64





	Intersections

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [OrSaiKellieLonore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrSaiKellieLonore/pseuds/OrSaiKellieLonore) for the beta!

Shitty hears yelling from the Reading Room during the first kegster of the year and texts Lardo to ask her to come babysit the tub so he can abandon the tub juice to go investigate. Once Lardo arrives, Shitty heads toward the Reading Room to see what’s going on. It's Nursey and Dex, two of the new frogs, and they're having a screaming match. Shitty quickly catches the words "check your privilege" from Nursey, followed by "not a fucking racist" from Dex and an incredible amount of profanity from both of them. Shitty sticks his head out the window. "Nursey," he calls. "Want some backup?"

"Mind taking over?" Nursey asks. "I'd rather enjoy the kegster, but this one needs an education." He jerks a thumb at Dex.

"All right," says Shitty, easing out onto the roof.

Nursey mutters his thanks as he heads to the window, and then Dex makes to follow him and Shitty grabs his wrist to keep him in place. 

"Let me go," Dex growls. 

"Nope," says Shitty calmly. "We're going to stay out here and chat."

"Why?" Dex whines.

"Because Nursey's right," Shitty replies. 

"How the hell can he tell me to 'check my privilege' when I've worked my hands bloody on FUCKING LOBSTER BOATS every summer since I was 14 to afford gear and he went to a FUCKING PREP SCHOOL?!" Dex yells.

"When you go into a store, do employees follow you around making sure you don't steal stuff?" Shitty asks. 

"Not usually," Dex grits out.

"When you fly, do you get pulled aside for 'random' security checks?" Shitty asks.

Dex scoffs. "You think I've ever been on an airplane?" 

Shitty jerks backward. "Okay. Fair. Do people make you feel unwelcome when you try to play hockey?" 

"What do you think you're doing right now?" Dex demands. 

"Trying to give you some perspective!" Shitty shoots back. 

"Well maybe you should get some for yourself first!" Dex yells before breaking free of Shitty's hold and clambering off the roof.

* * *

Shitty is not expecting Dex to sit next to him on the bus back from the Quinnipiac roadie. Usually the spot next to Shitty is Jack's space, though he's been sitting next to Bitty more and more often lately, like today. Shitty wishes Lardo could sit next to him, but she has to sit up front by herself and do manager things. Since Jack is sitting with Bitty, Shitty thinks he'll get some homework done on the ride back to Samwell, but apparently not, because Dex drops heavily into the seat next to him and says, "The Quinnipiac center called Nursey the N-word." It's dark outside and the bus lights are low. Shitty thinks Dex looks exhausted, but it's hard to tell.

"Fuck," Shitty replies.

"I'd never heard someone use that word, like, _at_ someone before," Dex confesses. "That must suck."

"Yeah," says Shitty.

"I feel so stupid," says Dex. "Like, no matter how much stuff Nursey told me, and no matter how much you tried to reason with me, I was still like, 'racism isn't a problem anymore.' I don't think I'm usually an idiot, but . . ."

"But you were about this," Shitty supplies.

"Yeah," says Dex. 

"I'm not going to say it doesn't matter," Shitty says, "because it does. And I'm not going to say it's cool as long as you do better going forward, because that's for Nursey to decide, not me. But I will say that it matters what you do going forward now that you know better, and that you're not doomed to be defined by what you said and did at eighteen."

Dex scrubs a hand over his face and then lets his head fall back against the headrest. "Thanks." Then he says, "I suppose I should ask Nursey how I can do better, huh?"

"Maybe after you've done some research on your own," says Shitty. "It's legit to ask Nursey what he needs from you and what he wants your friendship to look like, but first you should learn some stuff about racism on your own, both because it's important on its own and to demonstrate your investment in this to Nursey. Remember, it's not his job to educate you."

"Right," Dex mutters. 

"While we're confessing our past idiocy," Shitty adds, "I need to apologize for the way I approached the conversation the first time you got frustrated with Nursey for bringing up issues of privilege. Using airport security as an example was really fucking tactless of me. Race and gender get more airtime, at least in the circles I run in, but class is totally a valid intersection."

"Classes are what?" Dex asks. 

"Class," Shitty clarifies. "Like, social class. Socioeconomic status. Whether you and your family have money or not. That's an intersection—a factor in the amount of privilege you have. Like, you definitely benefit from white privilege and there are things that you're never going to have to deal with because of it, but at the same time there are things that you have to deal with that I don't, because my family has more money than yours. And it's not like that's news to me, but I haven't thought about it nearly as much as I've thought about race and gender and sexual orientation." 

"Sexual orientation?" Dex asks. 

Shitty frowns. "You do know what that means, right?"

Dex groans. "Of course I know what it means! I just—that's on the list?"

"Yeah," says Shitty. "Straight people have a fuckton of privilege in a bunch of different areas: employment, adoption, health care . . ."

"No, no, I know that," says Dex. "I just didn't know any of you Social Justice Warriors _cared_."

Shitty stares at him. "The fuck?"

"Oh, fuck, you're going to make me say it, aren't you?" Dex mutters. 

Shitty finally puts it together. "Dex, you don't have to tell me anything you're not comfortable telling me."

"No, fuck that," says Dex. "Nursey has two moms and a fuckton of money, and here I am trying to make it through college without getting disowned and losing my connection to my family and also, while we're at it, losing my health insurance, and all you ever do is tell me I'm privileged! What was I supposed to think?"

"That's why I'm apologizing for that!" Shitty returns, matching Dex's none-too-quiet volume. Then he sighs and continues, much more quietly. "I'm not going to say I was wrong to point out your white privilege and call your attention to racism, because I'm still convinced those are important things to do. But I was definitely wrong to call you privileged without qualifiers and to assume things were as easy for you as they've been for me, because we're in vastly different situations and yours is much harder than mine. And if you need help or support coming out, whether that's emotional or logistical, I want to help you with that. If you trust me enough to let me help."

"Of course I trust you," Dex mutters. "You're the first person I've come out to."

"Shit, really?" Shitty asks. 

"Yep," says Dex. 

"Can I hug you?" Shitty asks.

Dex hesitates but then says, "Yeah."

Shitty pulls Dex into his arms. The two of them have never hugged each other before outside of cellies, he realizes. When the hug is over, Shitty says, "You remember why you sat here, don't you?"

"Because the Quinnipiac center was a racist douche," Dex replies. 

"Right," says Shitty. "So you don't get to get as mad at Nursey for focusing on race as you've gotten at me."

Dex sighs. "Yeah. I know."

"Do you want to make a plan for coming out?" Shitty asks.

"I can't come out," Dex replies immediately. 

"Obviously that's your decision," says Shitty, "but I think you could be out to a few people without risking your family finding out, and the school has a health insurance plan partially for this reason, and also for international students. I think Jack and Ransom are on it. I know that's not your main concern, and getting disowned would suck for a bunch of other reasons, but some of the logistical problems are solvable."

"You really think so?" Dex asks. 

"Yeah," says Shitty.

"Thanks," says Dex. "I'll think about it, I guess. And if you could send me some stuff to read or watch about racism, that would probably be good. But in the meantime, do you mind if I fall asleep on you? I'm really fucking tired."

"Go ahead," says Shitty. 

Dex seems to fall asleep quickly, but Shitty stays up, thinking. He'd been so sure that Dex needed to learn and grow, and it's not like he was wrong about that, but holy fuck, how did he miss the ways Dex was suffering as a gay guy from a rural, conservative family? How did he miss that he, Shitty, needed to learn and grow too?


End file.
